David Finn

David Finn is Professor and Head of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Principal Investigator and Founding Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research at University of Galway. The overall aim of Professor Finn’s research is to increase our understanding of the neurobiology of pain and psychiatric disorders including anxiety and depression. His work focuses, in particular, on the affective and cognitive dimensions of pain, stress-pain interactions, and neuroinflammatory processes, with an emphasis on the endogenous cannabinoid, opioid and monoaminergic systems. An integrative, whole-systems neuroscience approach is employed, combining preclinical behavioural models with neurochemical and molecular analyses.

Professor Finn is a former recipient of the President of Ireland Young Researcher Award from Science Foundation Ireland, the Wyeth Award for outstanding research in Preclinical Psychopharmacology from the British Association for Psychopharmacology and the Pain Research Medal from the Irish Pain Society. He is immediate Past President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS; 2019-2020) and Past President of the Irish Pain Society (2015 - 2017). He sits on the Scientific Advisory Panel of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) and on the International Association for the Study of Pain and the European Pain Federation Task Forces for Cannabis, Cannabinoids and Chronic Pain. He is a member of the Faculty of 1000 Prime and the Editorial Boards of international scientific journals including Pain, Journal of Psychopharmacology, Brain Research, Frontiers in Neuropharmacology Frontiers in Pain Research, and the Scandinavian Journal of Pain. From 2012 - 2015 Professor Finn served as Director of the Galway Neuroscience Centre (https://galwayneuroscience.com/). He has published over 155 peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters and frequently lectures at international conferences. In addition to directing his research programme, Professor Finn teaches a range of Pharmacology topics to undergraduate and postgraduate science and medical students.